By: Marc Rapport, a Columbia-based editor + writer and member of Tree of Life Congregation.

Like any other holiday for any other grownup in Columbia, Hanukkah evokes childhood memories for me. In my case, it’s a dish towel.

Hanukkah – the Festival of Lights – began at sundown on Sunday, Dec. 2 this year. The eight-day holiday moves around between Thanksgiving + Christmas on the secular calendar – but as now-emeritus Rabbi Sanford Marcus from Tree of Life Congregation in Columbia would tell me when I’d say Hanukkah was late, or early, that year: “No, it always begins on the same day, Kislev 25.”

Quick history: Hanukkah celebrates the victory in 165 BCE (Before the Common Era in Jewish parlance) of Jewish freedom fighters over their Hellenistic Syrian oppressors and the rededication (and massive cleanup) of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. The miracle was that there was only enough olive oil found in the temple to keep the lights on for a day, but their fuel supply lasted eight days until more oil could be sourced.

Thus, the temple was saved, the Jewish people were again free to practice their faith, our future was restored, and today, we have “Eight Crazy Nights.”

There were Hanukkah songs before Sandler’s opus, of course. There are multiple versions of “Hanukkah O Hanukkah” out there – including this version for kids – and renditions by the cast of Glee and, yeah, Bare Naked Ladies. Then, of course, there’s the “Dreidel Song.” Here’s a cool acapella version by Shir Soul.

And last, but not least, here’s a really nice version in English and Hebrew of “Ma’oz Tzur”, or “Rock of Ages”. That’s the song I remember most as a kid in shul back in the 1960s. (I also remember being a latke in the Sunday school play.)

Now, about that dish towel. Lighting a nine-candle menorah — one for each day of the holiday and one for lighting the others — is the tradition. That includes chanting a blessing while lighting them. Then you eat and open presents — a folkway that has become quite Americanized with its association with Christmas.

For my American family — in a small Ohio town — that included my dad putting a dish towel over his head to lead the blessing, instead of a yarmulke. (I always assumed that was because we didn’t have any in the house — after all, our synagogue was 30 miles away in Canton. But years later, I realized it began that one crazy night because the dish towels were in the drawer under the counter where he placed the menorah and there were four clamoring kids looking up at him expectantly.)

Any head covering will do (we were always taught) and thus that family tradition began. I still hold that memory close and have done it myself when my daughter was young enough to find it amusing.

Anyway, candles lit, it was on to the opening of the presents. Showing my age now, my siblings and I would peruse the toy section of the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs for a couple months prior and then hope for the best. We’d open one present each night, which by the end of the eight crazy days were usually socks and school supplies.

While every family has its own folkways, there are some Hanukkah traditions we all share. Like, of course, playing the dreidel game and giving Hanukkah gelt – and, of course, making (and eating) latkes. Jelly donuts are another old-time favorite.

By the way, there are a lot of ways to spell Hanukkah in English. Chanuka was one that I remember as a child. In the original, it’s חֲנֻכָּה. Hanukkah is how it’s spelled in the AP Stylebook (a writer’s bible), and that’s the most common usage nowadays.

OK, that’s my spiel and I’m sticking to it.

Here are some ways to celebrate Hanukkah outside the house in Columbia this year.

🕎Chabad at UofSC grand opening and Hanukkah party | Sunday, Dec. 2, 7 p.m. | 1531 Washington St. | free | contact Rabbi Sruly Epstein at 803-445-6107 for more details

🕎Annual Sen. Isadore E. Lourie Memorial Menorah Lighting | Tuesday, Dec. 4, 5:45 p.m. | S.C. State House | free | ft. guest speaker Charleston business leader + philanthropist Anita Zucker; a dinner party follows at Good Life Café (1614 Main St.), Columbia’s only kosher-certified restaurant.

🕎Menorah Lighting and Chanukah Party | Thursday, Dec. 6, 5:45 p.m. | Chabad-Aleph House | 2509 Decker Blvd. | contact Rabbi Hesh Epstein at 803-467-3456 for more details

🕎Tree of Life Congregation, Columbia’s Reform synagogue + Beth Shalom Synagogue, our Conservative congregation, also have their own events planned.

Full disclosure: I intentionally left out details of those two congregations’ events. The details of the other events listed above are easily accessible online. Those at the two Trenholm Road synagogues aren’t. No one’s being secretive there, but in these days and times, a little extra prudence doesn’t hurt.

And, speaking of these days and times, this is nothing new for our people. The Jewish calendar is full of holidays that recount such life-or-death drama, beginning with Passover, the reminder of the Exodus from Egypt.

In fact, this popular meme about Jewish holidays has been our meme since before memes became a thing: “They Tried to Kill Us. We Survived. Let’s Eat!”

Ultimately, Hanukkah is about persistence and redemption against all odds and about people pulling together to make it happen. May your lights shine brightly.

So, happy חֲנֻכָּה and Merry Christmas and peace and happiness to all – no matter what and where you worship – including if it’s nothing and nowhere at all.

Let’s make this a new year in which we began to all get along. Now, that would be a holiday worth commemorating.

–Marc

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